Persons confined to a bed, such as hospital patients and elderly persons in nursing homes often desire convenient access to a telephone. However, such persons may find it difficult to reach the wall or level surface where the telephone is located, even if it is next to their bed, and it can be even more difficult to squarely place the handset back in the cradle. In an emergency, it may become impossible to reach the phone.
One possible solution is to provide such confined persons with cordless telephones which may be kept in their beds. Such telephones include an on-off switch for connecting the phone to an outside line. However, cordless telephones are expensive and are often too costly for persons who are already incapacitated. Another possible solution would be to use a telephone in which the dialing mechanism is included in the handset, and to keep the handset in the bed with the incapacitated person. In such a case, the handset would be removed from the cradle of the telephone base, so the handset would not cause the switch hook on the cradle to remain depressed. A handset would usually include a flash button which would have to be kept depressed at all times to keep the phone off the lie, except during a call. However, it is very inconvenient for a person who is already incapacitated to keep a flash button manually depressed for long periods of time.